What would you use this thing for?

[Prizl tha Chizl]

Took a load of  scrap to the salvage yard yesterday as a part of my barn cleaning project. My only rule there is I cannot leave with more than I came with, (volume, not necessarily tonnage.) After unloading I noticed this Beebe Bros. 2 ton winch they had set aside. Seeing as how it was both quite a bit smaller and lighter than the deposit I had just made, I couldn’t resist taking it.

After I returned, a little online research turned up a couple of stories about folks using these to lift materials to the top of commercial projects back in the day. My uncle, an old Cajun roughneck, told me I should build a gin pole truck with it. I had actually been thinking gin pole trailer.

How would YOU use this thing, (if you were in your shoes or if you were in mine?) or any other wisdom or anecdotes about this sort of tool.

[rusticretreater]

Wow. Awesome find.

My immediate thought and in keeping with the forum's tradition of spending other peoples money is to mount it overhead on a I-beam and dolly and use it for lifting things like finely crafted wood timbers and beams.

Then I looked it up and saw that it is a hand cranked winch so that turns it back to gin-pole use, or parbuckling logs onto the mill.  You could still use it in a mill shed with an overhead pulley to lift things if properly mounted.